As digital financial services grow rapidly, so do concerns over data privacy and protection especially for poor customers who are particularly vulnerable to abuses and injury from lax data policies. CGAP set out to test how much poor people value their data privacy and whether there was a business case for financial services providers to offer better data protection. The results from six experiments in Kenya and India make the case that customers will choose products with data policy and protection features built in, and they are willing to pay for them. This opens an avenue for voluntary self-regulation in markets that do not have strong consumer protection and data policies in place.
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Just like customers themselves, providers deeply value the protection and security of the customer data they hold. They just have different reasons.
Poor people in emerging economies are rightfully concerned about whether their families are safe, sheltered and adequately nourished. Where does privacy fit into that mix?